OECD says worldwide slowdown setting in

GDP GROWTH amongst the G20 group of major economies slowed in the second quarter, the OECD quarterly national accounts revealed yesterday.

And the OECD’s composite leading indicators suggested continued slowdown in growth across the world, slipping slightly to 100.2, just above the long term average.

The economies of G20 countries together grew 0.6 per cent during the April to June period, down on the 0.7 per cent seen between January and March which was in turn down on the fourth quarter of 2011.

The OECD, which includes many of the same developed economies, but fewer of the quickly expanding emerging markets, grew just 0.2 per cent.

Despite the overall decline, many emerging economies sped up, including heavyweight China, which grew 1.8 per cent in the second quarter, compared to the 1.6 per cent it grew in the first quarter of the year. Brazil, Indonesia, and South Africa also sped up their economic growth, while Turkey managed to turn the first quarter’s slight decline of 0.1 per cent into rapid 1.8 per cent expansion in the second quarter.

However most of the world's biggest economies slowed down or shrunk in the second quarter.

Japan grew 1.3 per cent in the first quarter, but only 0.2 per cent in the second quarter, while the economies of India, the US and Germany all grew at a more sluggish pace. The UK slipped to its third successive quarter of decline, while the Eurozone lost 0.2 per cent of output during the period.